Our Little World
by Cinnamon Angel
Summary: GGHarry Potter crossover. What happens when Narcissa Malfoy decides to take off and ends up in Stars Hollow? How will Draco react to the eccentric muggles? Can they rebuild their lives?
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is a rather crazy ideathat just popped in my head one day. I just started to wonder how would people like the Malfoys react to such a place as Stars Hollow and I thought there was potential for a story.

Please give it a shot? I'll give you some magic coffee!

Disclaimer: I own nothing that you may recognize.

And I'm no native speaker so I apologize in advance for mistakes that will make you cringe.

* * *

When Narcissa Black, formerly known as Malfoy, stepped into the sun of Diagon Alley, she couldn't smile any wider. It was the beginning of May and the birds were chirping. The alley was colourful and bustling with people but Narcissa had forgotten how pretty it actually was. Not that it had been a long time since she was last strolling there. Except that Lucius Malfoy did not stroll. He did not enjoy the sun, he hated busy streets and chirpy birds made him want to own a gun, even if it was a lame muggle device. Visiting Diagon Alley with him had nothing of an agreeable experience.

Except today was different. There was no Lucius, no murderous thoughts, no Knockturn Alley, no shady business. She started to walk down the cobble stoned street at a leisurely pace. A few people greeted her and looked at her in shock but the majority of the crowd did not even recognize her. Narcissa herself barely recognized her reflection in the shiny windows of the packed shops.

She was wearing muggle jeans and a light pink knitted jumper which complimented her perfect complexion and shiny golden hair. The outfit added to her odd happy behaviour had people wonder what could be up with her but she didn't care. She hardly noticed them, she was too glad to be rid of the Malfoyesque brocade robes.

Her steps eventually led her to the ice cream parlour. Her eyes lit with excitement. She had been dreaming of a double mocha cone since the trial. She placed her order and took a seat on the terrace. Bill was late, as per usual. Florian Fortescue arrived with the object of her desire just as Bill was walking up the street.

"Narcissa! You look wonderful!"

She laughed mirthfully at Bill Weasley. He was always amusing to her, even if he wasn't trying to be funny. It was something about his face and the expressions he wore. He had never understood why she was always laughing at him, but he had gotten used to it. They had known each other since Hogwarts, since some unfortunate accident in the owlery that neither of them ever told anyone but which still makes them laugh to this day.

Narcissa choked on her cone as she remembered and Bill shook his head as he sat down, perfectly knowing what she was on about. He decided not to comment though. It was certainly preferable in his case.

"Have I told you how wonderful you look?" he asked mischievously.

"Buy your own cone. I already told you flattery doesn't work with me."

He glared but she kept eating her cone peacefully. She hadn't had one of these since her wedding. Lucius always said that ice cream, if it had to be eaten, was to be served in a dish, and not some disgusting piece of biscuit that would let the melting ice cream drip everywhere.

Bill eventually got his own vanilla cone and the conversation took at much more serious turn.

"What are you going to do now Narcissa?"

"I'm going to sell all the properties. Then I'll take off. I don't know where to, but I'm leaving."

Bill sighed. He loved how much enthusiasm and life the trial had given her back, but he feared she wasn't used to do anything by herself. She had been swept away as soon as she graduated to be put on the trophy wife pedestal and probably never had further responsibility than to order a bunch of house elves around. And if she sold all the properties, would she even know how to buy a new one?

"What about Draco?"

Narcissa raised an eyebrow. "What about him? He's in school, hopefully behaving and getting decent grades."

"How will he take your 'taking off' and all the changes you seem to be making?" If Bill knew something, it was that Narcissa's son was far from being a piece of cake when it came to anything that didn't conform to his ideas, or rather, the ideas Lucius had drilled into the boy since he was born.

"Well, he doesn't really have a choice now, does he? He'll spend the summer wherever I've decided to settle and he'll change his attitude. Getting a bit of sun wouldn't hurt him too, he looks sickly."

Bill started to speak again but Narcissa cut him quickly. "Look Bill, I know nothing is going to be simple, for me or for Drake, but I'm changing our lives. I've got a second chance, don't you see it? There's still time to change everything, I'm sure there is."

He sighed, rolled his eyes and eventually smiled. "So, any ideas where you're going?"

...&...

The sun was not setting down on London and Narcissa was still a bit dizzy from the rush of this whole new world: Muggle London. She was fascinated, even though she nearly got killed twice by a double-deck bus and then an ambulance.

She was a bit (completely) lost with her muggle money and utterly terrified with her first journey on the tube. But she eventually managed and was very proud when she finally opened a muggle bank account without looking like a twat.

Now she was wandering on Leicester Square when a shop full of boxes with moving images in them caught her attention. She tried to remember the word for them, but her muggle studies were 16 years behind her. Television! She nearly shouted it but thankfully restrained herself. She watched fascinated. She entered the shop to see if she could hear any sound inside, and she could. It was a documentary about Canada and it was gorgeous.

Suddenly, she knew where she was going.

* * *

"CANADA?"

Severus' eyes bulged.

"Yes Sev, I'm moving to Canada."

The potion teacher sat down at what he knew to be Potter's place as it was covered in various graffiti's and banged his head repeatedly.

"You can't be serious Cissa! What are you going to do there? Where in Canada? How do you even plan to live there? Are there magical communities over there?"

"Merlin, get a grip! I don't care about any of this! I just know where I'm going. And I'm so serious I can even tell how I'm going to get there. I'm going to take an aeroplane!"

Snape choked. "A… what?"

"The muggle thinguie that flies." She supplied, rolling her eyes.

Severus' head connected once more with the table and an incoherent string of speech could be faintly heard. Narcissa, however, was highly entertained.

"Then I'm buying a car and I'm going drive from New York up to Canada, because I remember my friend Millie talking about road trips when we were in school together and she said it was cool."

"Narcissa, you're nuts. You can't even drive! And you don't know the country! And what about Draco? He's 15, do you really think you can just ask him to pack and go wherever the hell you've decided?"

"Canada, Sev. Canada. And I can drive actually. I asked my chauffeur to teach me when Lucius wasn't there. I even have a valid licence. And Draco, what does he have here? He never had friends out of school anyway, so what is he really leaving behind?"

"Nothing Mum, but what's the topic?" an all too familiar voice asked from the door.

"Your mother is a nut job," Severus mumbled from the table where his forehead still laid.

"Give the masses some fresh news," the young Slytherin drawled.

"We're moving to Canada and Sevvy is having a heart attack over it."

Narcissa searched her son's face as she broke the news of their changing continent but it was vacant of all expression, as per usual. She mentally cringed at that. She wanted a reaction, bad or good. That would at least mean he cared.

"Why? Scared of the bears?" Draco smirked.

"Shut up or I put you in detention with Weasley tonight."

Narcissa stepped into the exchange. "What do you think of us moving?"

Draco looked at her blankly. "I don't care. It's your life, do whatever the hell you want with it. It's not like you're giving me a choice, and even if you did, what else could I choose? I'm late for transfiguration anyway."

Narcissa winced at the coldness in his voice as he turned away and marched to the door.

Severus sighed "Well, at least he didn't blow up anything inmy classroom." He was painfully remembering the day a nine year old Draco had blown up everything possible in his flat. The muggle neighbours were still recovering, even if their memories had been thoroughly erased.

"I'm glad you think it's funny my son is the prince of ice," Narcissa snapped in a hurt voice.

* * *

Less than two weeks later, her suitcases stocked with the muggle things she bought on her numerous shopping trips after having sold the Denmark property, Narcissa Black was boarding a plane in Heathrow international airport.

She thought she would be even more scared of the plane than of the underground, but she was too excited to remember to be frightened. The journey went by quickly and soon enough was she strolling around New York; she wasted no time in finding a hotel which would have made Lucius cringe and after a couple of days, bought herself a jeep. That ended up being more complicated than she thought, because the insurance guy wanted her to give an address and couldn't quite comprehend that she was between addresses. She ended up giving him Severus' address in England as he was the only person she knew who had a muggle address. He would curse her into next week when he'd receive the paper but it would have to do for now.

Once in the countryside outside New York, she stopped the car and looked around. She didn't know where she was going and it was a wonderful feeling. Looking back, she still couldn't believe it. Just a few months ago, she was slamming her glass of firewhisky on the precious wood of Lucius' desk and marching out of the manor to get Dumbledore's help. Just a few months ago, she had finally remembered who she was.

How she arrived in Stars Hollow, Connecticut, was nothing extraordinary. It was yet another mocha cone craving that had made her stop. Then, the scent of freshly brewed coffee had attracted her to a small diner. Coffee wasn't really her thing, she was more a tea person. But this particular coffee had made her want some. And she was glad she had surrendered because the cup, or rather bowl of coffee she drank that day changed her life.

"Luke, you can't NOT give me coffee."

The shout had woken Narcissa from her reverie and she looked over at the counter where the diner man and a dark haired woman were arguing.

"I can, it's for the safety of the citizenry. The government should reward me with a medal: I'm saving the masses from you on caffeine high," Luke retorted.

"I'm only on my seventh cup! I'm far from the caffeine high! I'm so far from it I'm going to need the NASA to launch a satellite to localize the caffeine high for me! That's how far I am from it."

Narcissa subtly snorted in her cup at the antics of the two people who obviously had this conversation quite often. The seventh cup comment made her think of Draco and his caffeine addiction. Suddenly, she wished he was there too.

"Lorelai, go away!" Luke bellowed.

"Meanie!" the woman shouted back, to the amusement of the other customers.

"For here or to go?" he finally sighed, handing her a blueberry muffin.

"To go, my minion!" She threw him the money, grabbed the cup and ran to the door before he had time to change his mind.

The guy named Luke came round to Narcissa's table with the coffee pot. "Sorry about that, most people in this town are mentally defective."

Narcissa smiled as a rather imposing woman protested. "Don't listen to him Sugar, he's bitter and maudlin."

Luke slammed the pot down and turned around to the eccentric woman. "Don't you have some sucking-up to Taylor to do, Patty?"

"Oh Lord no, he's too old for me sweetie."

This time, Narcissa spat out her coffee and laughed out loud. Luke turned back to look at her. She tried to recover and managed to splutter that she was sorry. The person called Patty quickly caught on the fact that she wasn't from the neighbourhood, and was delighted to hear that she was British, and thus, grabbed her cup, her magazine and came to sit across Narcissa.

"So, what are you doing in our lovely town."

When the blonde woman answered she was only passing through, Patty was shocked. "Darling, you can't just 'pass through' Stars Hollow. It's a whole new life experience in itself."

"A traumatic one," drawled Luke from behind the counter where he was repairing his third toaster in a month. Patty dismissed him with a wave.

"We're having this spring festival this weekend. You should stay; it's very friendly. There'll be a parade, and bonfires, and punch."

"Punch?" asked Narcissa with a confused frown.

"Truly delicious, you'll love it. You're not in a hurry, are you?"

"Oh no, not at all. I'm actually looking for a new place to live and was going to go up to Canada."

"Pish, Canada has nothing on us," Patty exclaimed.

"She's right. The only difference is that they have the bears, we have the morons," added Luke.

Narcissa pondered the situation for a minute. The plan was to drive north. But she had time, didn't she? And who was telling her to stick to the plan? There was no plan in the first place.

"Where's a good place to stay?" she asked while waving her empty cup at Luke.

"Independence Inn," everybody replied while Luke gave her a fourth cup of the magic coffee.

* * *

"Independence Inn, Michel speaking."

Narcissa tapped her fingers on the polished counter. The man behind the desk had made three phone calls in a row, and then answered three without paying the slightest attention to her.

She tried once again to say hello and get the man's attention to no avail. She remembered the crazy people in town and decided that she was going to fit in. Which meant doing something crazy. Something Narcissa Malfoy would never have done.

She stepped behind the desk next to the French man and grabbed the reservation book that was sitting there. She noticed room 11 was small and free for the next week and wrote down her name in pencil in the appropriate case. She then noticed they always wrote down a credit card number and added hers.

Meanwhile, Michel had finished his phone call and Lorelai had arrived from the kitchen, cookie in hand. Both looked in shock at the blonde woman. She smiled broadly at Lorelai. "If everybody did like me, you wouldn't have to hire that annoying guy anymore."

"Now there's a thought…"

"Lorelai!" screeched Michel. "You better not take into consideration the advice of this rude person when it comes to running this place! I am highly trained and completely necessary to the functioning of this inn!"

"Relax Michel. And besides, she probably wouldn't have done that if you hadn't been ignoring her for the past twenty minutes. Geez, take a chill pill my friend, and slow down on the low-fat cheese, it makes you cranky..." The dark-haired woman from the diner rolled her eyes.

Michel started to protest but Lorelai cut him. "I was there, I saw everything. And no, I didn't intervene because I wanted to see how long you would play and how much patience she had." Her face was lit with a nearly sadistic smile. She then turned to Narcissa.

"Your patience span is unbelievable. Most people snap after 3 minutes 47 seconds tops."

"I have a very complicated 15 year old boy," was Narcissa's answer. And Lorelai knew exactly what she was talking about.

* * *

Please review?


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note: Thank you so much for the reviews! 8 for chapter 1! I hope you will continue to enjoy this story!

* * *

Chapter 2:

Vincent and Gregory now had milk all around their bowls and yet kept splashing their cereals around with much amusement. Draco, however, was not amused in the least. Every time his mother sent him a letter, he could see his life take a turn for the worst. But today's made him snap, which was quite unexpected. Nothing could normally sway his stony exterior.

"For crying out loud, how old do you think you are? Quit playing with your spoons like three year-olds and start acting like Slytherins, not bloody Hufflepuffs!" Draco hissed finally pulling his eyes away from his mother's letter.

The merry clatter of spoons and milk stopped and Draco returned to his reading. Each word made him more convinced that his mother had finally cracked. Now she was talking of staying in a small town she randomly stopped in. He had received a letter when she had arrived there and she had shown no inclination to stay there. Now, four days later, she was ranting about how wonderful the place was. She was thoroughly describing the people in town and the blonde Slytherin shuddered at the epic adventures of two seemingly St-Mungo's ward escapees called Babette and Patty.

He didn't know what had possessed his mother but it was starting to worry him. He sighed and grabbed his fifth coffee bowl (yes, bowl) before heading to the staff table. He stopped in front of Snape who was chatting with Dumbledore and McGonagall and shoved the letter under the potions master's nose.

"Do something. She's gone bloody bonkers! Make her come back here and take her place back where she belongs. This is ludicrous!" Draco complained to his head of house.

"Do what?" asked Snape raising an eyebrow at his godson, deciding to overlook the fact that the boy had rudely interrupted the headmaster.

"Anything! Talk to her, write to her, tell her I'm dying and she has to come back. Go there and put her in a box to ship her back, I don't care but DO something!" the teenager growled.

Professor McGonagall grabbed the letter that was happily soaking in Snape's beans and began to read. "I don't see the problem mister Malfoy. Your mother sure seems to be enjoying herself. These town characters appear quite entertaining in my eye." She returned to her toast, missing the death glare Draco sent in her direction.

Severus sighed; he knew Draco's world was upside down now and that everything he'd been taught was being invalidated lately. "She does sound happy. Don't you want her to be happy?" He watched the teenager squirm uncomfortably. "I know this is weird for you and I know you're probably worried but at least the people in that town seem nice enough, don't they? Give it a chance; you never know what good could come out of this." He glared at Minerva who was smiling at his soft tone. It was embarrassing enough he couldn't help being fatherly towards Draco without having HER of all people point it out.

Draco knew his godfather was right and that was making his anger rise even more. He didn't want to lose his last ounce of temper in front of the whole school though, so he snatched the letter, shoved it into his pocket and marched back to the Slytherin table, where Crabbe and Goyle had taken to start again their splashing as soon as Draco had stood up.

The two boys stopped as they saw him come back, especially since he had this well-known, dangerous glint in his eyes but surprisingly, he stared blankly at the mess they had done, grabbed his schoolbag and left the Great Hall without another word.

He walked swiftly towards the library. Breakfast wasn't over and classes wouldn't be starting for another half hour. He pushed the heavy door open and was greeted with an empty library. Even the old and cranky librarian was nowhere in sight. Draco smirked. More than anything did he like the library in the morning when it was empty. He didn't care for the sighs and quills droppings of the evening; they made him cringe and snap his own quills, a habit he had developed over the years to calm his frustration. Of course, Narcissa hadn't quite liked it when he had snapped in half a whole box of extremely expensive quills in two hours, but she thought it was better than when he was making the ballroom's thirty French windows shatter so she let him be.

The Slytherin boy gracefully let his body fall in a comfortable armchair and pulled a potions book out of his bag. He immersed himself in it so completely that he hardly noticed the person who had been tapping incessantly on his shoulder for the past five minutes. It was only the bell announcing the first class of the day that distracted him from his reading and he looked up to meet Pansy Parkinson's amused stare.

"You're such a hopeless case Draco, I swear."

"I am not" he huffed indignantly while shoving his book back in his bag.

"One of your books is going to kill you one day. You'll be so caught up into it that you won't notice the world is ending. A dragon could be standing in front of you and you wouldn't even acknowledge it," she laughed at him.

"I was ignoring you, I knew you were there!"

She chuckled and shook her head at him. She didn't need to tell him off, he knew she was right. She started walking swiftly towards the door and heard him jog to catch up with her. People thought they were an item. Nothing made them laugh more than that. They were friends. Brother and sister. Compadres. But at least, girls didn't dare put their paws on the "Slytherin Prince" with Pansy around and she was saved from Theodore Nott, who had taken to stalk her since they were nine. It was a pretty good deal.

They took a turn and came across the Dream Team. Pansy shot them the customary glare, but she noticed her friend was lost too deep in his thoughts to pay attention to them. That worried her, considering that Ronald Weasley's not so discreet voice was extremely hard to ignore and that Draco would always jump at any occasion to take out his anger on the red-headed Gryffindor.

"What's up Drake?" she whispered, knowing he wouldn't want to be interrogated with everybody around. "You seem in a distant mood today. Is it still that trial bothering you?"

That made Draco realize that he hadn't told Pansy the results of the trial or that his mother had gotten a divorce. With much bribery and blackmailing from Narcissa, the Daily Prophet and other gossip hunters had agreed to withhold the news for a couple of weeks, enough time for the remaining Malfoys to pull their lives together. 'One more week of peace' Draco thought sadly. He didn't want the school to be talking about him.

"It's finished Pansy, he's in Azkaban, my mum got her divorce, she's selling everything reminding her of Lucius, changed her name back to Black and has taken off for the United-States to start over or so she says," he answered in a bored voice.

Pansy discreetly sighed of relief. "Isn't it good then? You should be happy and instead, you're sulking in your own little world."

"Malfoys don't sulk."

"Whatever, just tell me already," she poked him in the ribs, one of her twisted ways of showing affection for the boy.

They had now reached the Charms classroom but Flitwick was nowhere in sight and people were chattering happily in the hall. Draco leaned against a pillar and looked at Pansy.

"I don't know…Everything's too weird now. My head is a mess; I don't know what to think anymore. My father probably taught me plenty of wrong things which he's paying dearly for, and I know I'm not him but it's hard to redefine everything I've lived by so far. My mum seems happy though. She doesn't have any problem moving on…" He lost track of his speech and just fell back into silence.

Pansy took his thin hand into hers and squeezed it tightly. "She didn't grow up like you. She probably doesn't have to reconstruct everything around her and can dig into her past to find things that made sense. Give it time Dragon." She winked at him.

"Alright Flower," he conceded while rolling his eyes and pushing himself off the pillar as Flitwick trotted down the hall and ushered his students in the classroom.

* * *

Narcissa rolled on her side and watched the leaves move with the slight breeze. The sun was shining today again and she felt amazing. It was Tuesday morning and she was still in Stars Hollow. The festival had been a lot of fun. She had met most people in town by now and she liked them in all their eccentricity. Sometimes she felt a bit crowded as she used to spend her days alone in the manor when she didn't have a social function to attend. And even during those, she felt lonely. She hated most of these people with a passion and hid in a corner hoping to disappear into the wall until Lucius would come and drag her away by her wrist muttering about her incapacity to uphold the name of Malfoy.

Malfoy.

She was Narcissa Black now. She liked it. It spoke freedom to her, for the first time since she was born. Anything would speak freedom next to the name of Malfoy mind you. It was still Draco's name though. She hadn't managed to make Lucius sign the papers that would let him use her name. She felt her anger rise and decided to put her thoughts away and to get up. She had lots of stuff to do today. Starting with finding a house and looking for a job.

The blonde woman changed into jeans and a white cardigan before bouncing downstairs. Michel greeted her with a grunt of annoyance and a glare. She laughed at him.

"Morning Chirpy."

"Get away from me," he gritted through his teeth.

Lorelai smacked him with an envelope. "Michel, be nice to the guests."

He slammed the reservation book shut and stalked towards the kitchen, mumbling something about women and coffee. Lorelai and Narcissa leant on the desk and raised their eyebrows at his retreating form. They laughed and exchanged an evil look.

"So Narcissa, when are you leaving us?" asked Lorelai in a friendly tone. She enjoyed Narcissa's company, especially if Luke or Michel were around.

"Well, I'll leave the Inn when I can find a house," the blonde woman answered with a wink.

"You're staying?" exclaimed the Inn manager. "That's wonderful! This is a great town, you will love it."

Narcissa nodded and looked around the lobby. "Yes, it's exactly what I was looking for. It's a new start in my life. It's completely different from everything I've known so far and I can finally put all that behind me. I'm going to look for a house now. I'll probably see you at Luke's later today."

666666666

Narcissa walked around Stars Hollow most of the morning. She saw plenty of houses but none seemed to fit the ideas in her head. She wanted something as far as possible from Malfoy Manor but still elegant. And spacious. Because she knew they would have to store their magical items away. And between Draco and her, they had too many potion ingredients and books for a little closet. Yes, they would need an extra room, if not two.

In the afternoon, she was about to give up on her search for the day when she came across a house for sale that matched everything she wanted: It had a Victorian style with a porch that ran around the whole house and two floors, plus the attic. The rooms were not too big but not small either and the attic would be perfect to store their magical stuff.

She ran her delicate fingers on one of the apparent beams in the living room and smiled to herself. Of course, the whole house needed a good painting, but it wasn't a problem. She could ask Kirk to do it since he would basically do anything you wanted. Then she would need furniture, but that wouldn't be a problem either, she already had had a look at Mrs Kim's antique store and had her eye on a few pieces. For the rest, she could ask someone in town where to go. The selection of stores in Hartford was insane anyway.

Of course, she could use magic to settle in the house, but she had a feeling that people here were very curious of their neighbours and that someone would notice if she used it too much. But she was up for the challenge: she would live like the Muggles, and she would enjoy it. She would get a job, do her own stuff as she had no use for house elves here and Draco would agree or she would ship him to summer school.

'No, cross that out, he would love it. I'll ship him to… to… HAH, I'll ship him to Bill. That would straighten him out quickly. Except I would have to explain to him that I've secretly been friends with Bill since we were in Hogwarts. Too much hassle. He'll just have to shut up and obey and that'll be it.'

She was lost in her track of thought when a move behind the tree caught her eye. She went out onto the porch and called the thin figure climbing the stairs of the neighbouring house.

"Rory?"

Lorelai's daughter turned around and smiled at Narcissa while sauntering back down the wooden stairs and approaching the yellow house in front of which the woman was standing.

"Hi, how are you? What are you doing here?" chirped Rory, her blue eyes sparkling. They were even brighter than Lorelai's.

"Well, I'm moving in. I didn't know we would be neighbours though."

"Is that a bad thing? I mean… We are mean to pets and we throw stones at children and steal their chocolate and we stalk neighbours when they look like Brad Pitt… But really, we are the perfect neighbours," Rory babbled.

Narcissa looked at her blankly. "Who's Brat Pitt?" she eventually asked shamefully.

"WHAT?" Rory was shocked. "How can you not know? Even British people know Brat Pitt! He's an actor. He starred plenty of great movies!"

Actor? Movies? Narcissa frowned and concentrated very hard on her memories of muggle studies. Except that her teacher was kind of a joke so she had spent the greater part of those lessons trying to get a rise out of the Gryffindor prefect seated right in front of her. Nice memories.

She hadn't noticed that Rory had started talking again. "We're having a movie night tomorrow, Mom and I. You should come! We'll eat tons of junk food and we'll stay up late and fall asleep on the floor and we'll feel sick the next morning."

"Alright, I will." Narcissa didn't even hesitate if it was proper or not. She didn't have to ask anyone if she was 'allowed' to go and there was nobody to check that she had confirmed that she would show up.

Rory smoothed her plaid skirt. "Hey are you going to Luke's?" Narcissa nodded. "Wait for me? I'm just going to change out of my school uniform and we can go there together." The girl ran off to drop her schoolbag and change before Narcissa could even answer, and back quicker than anything possible.

"Come on Cissa, the coffee doesn't wait!" Rory exclaimed, pushing the blonde woman away from her house.

* * *

Narcissa sat on the floor, holding her stomach. Rory had been right, the amount of food swallowed that night had been phenomenal. Lorelai plopped on the couch with a pack of popcorn in her hand.

"Mom, don't tell me you're going to eat that!" asked Rory with wide eyes.

"Why not? Lorelai whined. "I can't watch the Borrowers without popcorn!"

"Aren't you feeling nauseous enough after the three pizzas, five pop tarts and five kilos of candy, cookies and other chips we swallowed?" The mere mention of so much food made Narcissa turn a lovely shade of green.

"Yes, but I won't watch the Borrowers without popcorn!" insisted Lorelai.

"Fine." Rory popped the dvd out of the player and put it back in the box.

"What are you doing evil child?" yelled Lorelai.

"I'm preventing you from eating the pop corn. I have school tomorrow so I'm not watching over your sick self and you have work." Rory deadpanned. Lorelai started to pout.

"You're mean. Now what are we going to do, it's only 9!"

"We could watch The Mexican." Rory waved the dvd box.

"I need ice cream to watch that." Lorelai groaned.

"Mom."

"Oooh, I know! We could get information on our guest! Make a FBI file and all!"

'A FBI file? Better not to ask' thought Narcissa. Still, she was getting worried at everything she didn't know. Tonight she had learnt plenty of muggle junk food names, what was a dvd, a dvd player, a vcr and a stereo, a microwave and a fuse but there was so much. She didn't think her brain would manage to keep up very long. She would slip up and she was worried about that. she had no one to help her, nobody knew what she was. She wished again that Draco was there. At least she would have someone to share her problems with.

She decided to go to Hartford the next day, to find the wizard community that Dumbledore had told her about. Maybe there would be someone nice enough there to help her. And she needed a break from the muggle world. It was still too tiring for her.

A lamp suddenly blinded her and she blinked to get the black spots out of her eyes. When she opened her eyes again, Lorelai was holding the lamp and Rory was looking very serious with a pen and notepad in her hands.

"So, let's start our interrogation." Rory grinned.

"Twenty questions?" Lorelai squealed happily.

"Mom, what do you expect to learn in twenty questions? We're filing for the FBI, not Cosmo," the teenage girl scolded her mother.

"Right, so let's start. Miss Black, how old are you?" asked Lorelai in a professional tone.

'Oh Merlin, where is this going?'

* * *

Review! 


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thanks for the wait everyone. This story is far more successful than I thought it would be and I'm feeling great about it! thanks for all the reviews and do not worry, I can be slow, but I'm extremely stubborn and doubt I will give up on such a story!

And I'm also looking for a beta reader, so if you're interested, leave me a message. It's only for this story (not gonna ask a person to read the humongous amount of other crap I wrote) and it's not much work since I update every millenium or so (working on improving that particular point, I promise.)

**Chapter 3: Handling it... Or not.**

"Right, so let's start. Miss Black, how old are you?" asked Lorelai in a professional tone.

Narcissa sighed, hoping she wouldn't slip up on any question. "I'm thirty-three."

"And where are you from?"

"Mom, don't ask stuff we already know! Be a bit professional!" whined Rory who was changing cds.

"Ok ok, Sherlock. Favourite colour?"

Narcissa had to ponder that for a moment. Of course, as a Malfoy and member of the Slytherin house, Lucius had a soft spot for green and silver and the whole manor had always been very austere and dark. She shook her head, that wasn't her, she needed to find herself again. "I love pink and blue, and red," she finally exclaimed.

"Foods?"

"Luke's coffee," she answered without hesitation. The two Gilmores laughed and Lorelai did what she thought was a discreet victory dance.

"Hobbies?"

That was another hard one. Lucius wasn't one to like hobbies. Hobbies were for people who had time to waste. And people who actually had time to waste were losers without enough ambition. But still, there was one thing that she loved to do and that Lucius had never been able to take away as it always awed the other ladies: gardening.

"Gardening? You have to be joking Cissa!" whimpered Lorelai who had no skills at all with the green thinguies.

"No, I love it," Narcissa replied while sipping her coffee. Her eyes fixed into emptiness. "I had a wonderful rose garden back at the manor. And a winter garden full of exotic plants. It was my haven, my husband would never come there…" she trailed off, hoping for the two Gilmores not to pick up on anything she had just said. But wrong luck, of course.

"Manor? You lived in a manor? I didn't know you were married either," said Rory furrowing her brow.

"I'm divorced actually. Have been for the past week or so."

Narcissa was growing uneasy. She didn't want to talk about Lucius and his way of life; she didn't want to reminisce about her life at the manor and the horrible things that happened there. Lorelai eyed her carefully and decided to change the topic. Her new friend was looking down and uncomfortable.

"So, if I remember, you said once you have a son. Tell us about him," she happily interrupted, hoping Narcissa would like that topic better. Her guest chuckled.

"Well, his name is Draco and he's a little brat really, but I love him. He's turning 15 soon. He loves reading and playing the piano and drawing; he's kind of a loner and he's rather feisty. Doesn't like people. I left him in Europe, he's in a boarding school in Scotland."

"But he'll come over for the summer, won't he?" Lorelai asked eagerly.

"Mom, you are NOT hitting on a fifteen year old," cut Rory severely.

"I never hit on fifteen year olds! I'm just curious!" the older woman complained. "Besides, he better get used to Miss Patty, she hits on anything male."

"She doesn't hit on Luke," Narcissa offered.

"Wrong answer!" shouted Lorelai while waving her ice cream spoon in the air. "She does. She's just subtle enough about it so that most people don't notice and he doesn't bite her head off!"

"Mom, where did you get that ice cream! I thought you were stuffed!"

"Your point being?" inquired Lorelai while licking said spoon.

"Point being you said you were stuffed! Hence unable to further the consumption of anything belonging to the food category."

"Is that a critic towards my digestive system?" Lorelai threatened.

"What?"

"You don't think my system can process food so that I'm not stuffed anymore five minutes after having said I'm full? You of all people should worship the Gilmore metabolism. You should worship it as it passes on the red carpet with Johnny Depp as an escort. Oh, we should buy red carpet for the bathroom!" she squealed.

"And why would we do that?" Rory asked, fearing the answer.

"Well, so the Gilmore digestive system feels honoured, obviously." Lorelai rolled her eyes.

"Right, you do that. Now let's go back on track shall we?" She turned back to Narcissa. "Why did you leave England?"

Narcissa's smile fell quickly as she recalled the causes of her departure but she smiled again as she remembered all of it had been left behind. "Well Rory, I left because I needed a new start, away from my ex-husband, away from everything. I wanted something as far as possible from what I had before." She grinned, thinking about Lucius rotting away in Azkaban.

Lorelai conscientiously licked her spoon and looked around. "Did you live with my parents up till now?"

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Elsa blinked as the sun hit her right through the window and crouched on the wooden floor, where the pile of books was sitting dauntingly. She once more cursed under her breath at Joan who had whined she couldn't prepare the new window display because she was scared of falling if she had to walk around in her socks.

"I'll buy that tart grip socks for Christmas," she muttered. She then proceeded to grab a humongous book entitled "Electricity", slipped and landed on her butt.

"Oh my God, are you ok?"

A tall blonde woman had run towards her and was now helping her up.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just that stupid book and those stupid socks, and who the hell would buy such a heavy book!" she said loud enough for her boss to hear.

Narcissa laughed and the saleswoman suddenly remembered the professional aspect of things. "I'm sorry, welcome to Flourish&Blotts, how may I help you?"

"I'm looking for books on Muggles. I live in a muggle town and I need to live quite like them but-"

"The Guide to Muggleness," Elsa interrupted.

"Excuse me?"

"That's the best book you can get. All you need: tips from fashion to furniture passing through electrical equipment, tools, computers, bus systems, cultural references, repairing manuals, cinematographic stuff, and so on. Everything is mentioned, everything is explained, you can't make anymore mistakes with this. You can also leave it out in the open as to Muggles, it looks like a mere cooking book. This will definitely be your best investment and…"she suddenly trailed off, looked at her customer more closely. "Merlin almighty, you're Narcissa Malfoy!" she finally exclaimed.

Narcissa opened wide horrified eyes, grabbed "The Guide to Muggleness" as well as the saleswoman and ran to a corner.

"How do you know?" she whispered angrily.

"Aren't you aware? You're on the front page of all the newspapers! Good job getting rid of your husband! Such class! Sad everything that happened though. No family should have to go through all this. Hey, are you okay?"

Narcissa had sunk to the floor, her gaze empty. It was already there. It was in every single newspaper of the magical community. How she, Narcissa Malfoy had sued her husband for abuse and then helped the Wizengamot gather other accusations against him. They always had needed something to get a hold of him and she had provided that. Now everybody was reading the reports about life at Malfoy manor. She could only imagine the hyperbolic drama editors had printed.

She should have stayed in Stars Hollow. Or come here sooner. She was safe in Stars Hollow, no one there to recognize her. And she should have taken Draco out of school. How was he going to handle this? He didn't really have any friends apart from Pansy and she surely would be irate that he hadn't told her anything.

She felt the saleswoman shake her softly and looked at her in fear. "I should go. Thanks for the book."

They walked to the cash register and Narcissa paid for her book. She hesitated in front of the door. The crowded avenue now seemed oppressive. Who knows who would recognize her?

"I can drive you to the end of the avenue in the delivery van if you want. That way you won't have to walk out there."

Narcissa smiled to the saleswoman and nodded. "Let's go then. I'm Elsa by the way," added the saleswoman.

"Nice to meet you Elsa. I'm Narcissa."

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While his mother was carefully tucked away in a Flourish&Blotts delivery van, Draco was taking the paper right in the face. He had been too absorbed with his work to realise that a week had gone by and he wasn't actually sure it had. The editors probably decided to publish the story anyway.

Breakfast had been hectic. Even if only 5 percent of the kids received the newspaper, and maybe 2 percent read it, the story had spread like wild fire in a dense and dry forest. By the time he had finished his sixth coffee bowl, very needed that morning, his housemates were hassling him, Pansy was fulminating, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw were discussing and Hufflepuff was slowly, but surely, working out the event.

Draco looked up at the teachers' table and saw that McGonnagal was already gone. He sighed in relief. It meant she was in her classroom already and he could go hide there till the bell rang. He grabbed his book bag, took a deep breath and stood up. He knew everybody in the dining hall was watching him but he decided to pretend he couldn't see them. He grabbed a roll and strolled out confidently while cursing journalists under his breath.

McGonnagal's classroom was empty when he stepped in. He took his usual seat in the back corner and took out his notes. Transfiguration was his weakness; he had a hard time grasping it sometimes but it never showed through his grades and he was proud of his efforts. He started perusing his notes for the hundredth time, making sure everything was clear. The teenager didn't hear the classroom door slam or the very angry steps coming in his direction.

"Is that how you treat your friends Draco? You lie to them for more than 10 years? Is that a reflection of how little respect you actually have for me?" Pansy screeched.

"I'm reading, Pansy."

She grabbed his notes and threw them across the wall. "Do I look like I care?"

Draco sighed. "What did you want me to tell you? And what would it have changed?"

"I don't know. And I will never know since you didn't tell me!"

"Look, I'm sorry okay? I didn't know how to tell you something like that. I know you're mad and you possibly have every right to be but I didn't want to worry you.

"God, you're so selfish!" she finally yelled.

That made him jump up. "I'm selfish? I'm selfish? What do you even mean by that? You don't make sense!"

A dry voice cut the argument short. "Mr Malfoy and Miss Parkinson, if you want to scream, it's out of my classroom please."

Both teenagers snapped out of the angry bubble and looked at the stiff transfiguration teacher who had gone back to writing instructions on the black board.

Pansy pulled her chin up. "I'm sorry professor. I don't have anything else to say to him anyway." She grabbed the bag she had let fall to the floor and stalked across the room to sit as far from him as possible.

Draco sighed and slowly got up to get the notes that Pansy had smashed against the wall. He looked at her but she blatantly ignored him and pretended to be interested in her transfiguration book. He sighed and sat back down, trying to pull his thoughts together.

As he was contemplating that maybe he should have taken off with his mother, Blaise Zabini dumped his bag next to him.

"Find another seat Zabini," Draco drawled. He knew Blaise wanted to sit there to get more stories out of him.

Blaise pretended not to hear. "So, Rita Skeeter got ya, eh? That woman and exaggeration: an eternal marriage. Where did she dig up all that rubbish?" the black-haired boy commented mirthfully.

Draco snapped his quill in two and went back to his reading.

Blaise, obviously, didn't remember that his blonde friend snapping quills was never a sign of clemency and kept going. "I mean, why does she have to make everything a drama story? Her alternate reality is a soap opera. Lucius always spoiled you guys anyway. So why did your mum get a divorce? He was at it with his secretary? I wouldn't mind doing her so I couldn't really blame him.

The author here comments on the fact that it's needless to say that Blaise Zabini didn't see the punch coming. He however felt the pain explode in his forehead and definitely heard McGonnagal's screech. "Out of here Mr Malfoy! You may go directly to the headmaster's office!"

Draco stormed down the halls on his way to Dumbledore's office. He would rather go anywhere else, but when a teacher told you to go there, you didn't have any other choice, your feet would just not take another way. Even if another way would have avoided him an encounter with the Golden Trio.

"Well well well, read the paper today Malfoy, I suppose" Harry laughed.

The Slytherin stopped dead in his tracks and wished once again that he was dealing with the Stars Hollow loonies and not with the Gryffindor nutjobs.

"Yes Potter, I have. Contrary to you, I have literacy skills, I don't need Granger to read things out and explain them to me."

Harry turned crimson and Hermione put her hand on his arm to calm him down.

"Honestly Granger, you need to buy him a leash, you never know when he might pounce. Though I guess the colour could be an indication."

"I wouldn't be such a smart-aleck if I were you Malfoy. Especially now that your daddy is in Azkaban," Ron cut in and advanced on the blonde boy. "I don't believe any of the bullshit printed in the paper. Your mother probably bribed the paper to write something dramatic but which didn't outright accuse daddy Malfoy of being a war criminal."

Draco looked past the annoying redhead and saw the windows shake slightly. He needed to stay in control. "You believe what you want Weasley, your opinion has about as much weight as your brain. Beware, the wind is strong today."

Ron lunged himself at Draco but the Slytherin seeker was way faster and punched him win the stomach while ducking. Ron found himself without breath, on the floor, and a concerned Hermione hovering above him. Harry on the other hand, was fighting with Malfoy, both boys beaten to pulps and yet not stopping...

Till they heard a thundering voice at the end of the hall. Dumbledore was standing there, and needless to say, was inevitably extremely angry. He wasted no time handing out detentions and sending the trio to the hospital wing. He then turned to Draco and motioned him to follow him.

The teenage boy stepped behind him in the office and made him sit and conjured some water and a towel so the boy could wash his face.

Dumbledore sat back in his chair and eyed Draco pensively. He hadn't needed to read the paper as he had been present to the trial and knew perfectly what Rita Skeeter had reported and what came from her peculiar Wonderland.

"Mr Malfoy, I understand this is a difficult day for you, but so far, you've been in a fight with your best friend, you've punched Mr Zabini and you've beaten up Mr Weasley and Mr Potter."

He saw Draco about to protest and held up his hand. "I do not want to know if you have been provoked or not. I can easily imagine it being the case. However, such behaviour will not be accepted again. Step out of line again, Mr Malfoy, and there will be dire consequences. I hope you realise that by acting with such outward violence, you're putting yourself on a level about as low as your father. You may go now."

The old headmaster opened a file and proceeded to ignore the teenager. It didn't pass his notice that everything was trembling around the room and that Draco's eyes were more raging than they ever had been.

He knew he had hit low when comparing the kid to his father, but he felt his words needed to have an impact on him or things would get out of hand rather quickly.

The Slytherin finally stood up and slammed the door behind him. And let every single window fly into shards as he passed them.

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There you go kiddies! I was inspired to write twice as much but I wanted to post this.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Hey there! Kind of a filler chapter, but I like to take my time instead of having major evenements in every chapter. Still not beta read, sorry. Enjoy!

Chapter 4:

The hospital wing was very quiet that evening. McGonagall had dropped him there to serve detention and he had been bored out of his mind. A whole evening wasted just because he had broken a few windows. Draco was sitting on the cold stone floor, surrounded by vials of different colours. Madam Pomfrey was a good nurse but organisational skills were definitely not her dominant force. He had been asked to sort through the vials and to organise the supply closet, needless to say, without magic.

The big clock in the main room rang 10 pm and he stood up and dusted his trousers. He pushed the vials he hadn't sorted out on one side and turned off the light before stepping out. He would have time to do it the next evening. He knew he would be in detention again, like he had been for the past two days. He kept getting into trouble, everyday, something else befell him and threw him off balance.

He tried though. Dumbledore's words a couple nights ago had hit too close to home for his liking. He knew he wasn't his father but he was scared of becoming him anyway. He had made humongous efforts to avoid getting into fights. He had withdrawn into the shadows and just wanted people to ignore him. But it hadn't worked out. When the other students had gathered that Draco Malfoy, bully almighty, had shut down and given up even defending himself, they took advantage of it.

Draco couldn't really blame them. He knew he very possibly deserved it. Even the younger Hufflepuffs were provoking him in the halls and it took everything he had not to hex them into next Wednesday. Of course, there inserted itself the problem of the broken windows. He had never understood why glass reacted that way to his anger, but well, it did. And with consequences.

McGonagall was sure he had done it on purpose when a shard had flown right into a Gryffindor girl's face. Snape had to give him another detention when he made Neville Longbottom's potion vial blow up, seriously burning the poor boy. Then it had been when he had finally blown up and told Granger to stuff her wand down her throat during Herbology.

"Finished Mr Malfoy?" the nurse demanded in a tired voice.

"No Madam. But I'll probably be back tomorrow night anyway," he replied bitterly.

"Already planning your next detention? Are you taking pride in it? Are you trying to break the Weasley twins' record?"

"I'm not trying anything. Detention just seems to be my middle name these days," he protested.

The nurse rolled her eyes and pointed to the door.

Draco took the path of the Slytherin common room without any conviction. At least, being in detention, he didn't have to deal with them. Well, he didn't have to deal with Pansy or that brat of Zabini. While he could understand that his best friend was mad at him, he certainly couldn't cope with Zabini. The boy had taken upon himself to stalk Draco to annoy the hell out of him. And surely, he was sitting in the common room when Draco stepped inside.

"Ah, Malfoy. Fancy seeing you here," Zabini drawled while stretching his legs and resting them on a chair. Draco grabbed his astronomy book and studiously ignored his classmate.

"Finished with detention? Do you also break windows at home? I wonder how mummy reacts when you do that. It must have been a pain dealing with a child like you while your daddy was away cavorting with merlin-knows-who."

The blonde boy snapped the quill that was lying on the table. He had reached the conclusion that the worst was not having his life displayed in the Daily Prophet but the way people reacted to said display. Everyone thought that Narcissa Malfoy had paid the journalist to write heart-wrenching rubbish in an attempt to save her reputation and the one of her son, And Zabini seemed to enjoy twisting the knife in the wound like no one else.

"Lost your tongue Malfoy?" Blaise snickered from his seat near the fire.

"No Zabini, but unlike you, I plan to have a career and for that I need my grades not to be as abysmal as yours so kindly shut up and let me study," Draco replied with a sweetness that would usually make people run for cover. Draco Malfoy hardly ever yelled; but you certainly knew when to avoid him.

Blaise smirked. He was after Draco and he wasn't about to give up. Draco Malfoy had presided over Slytherin ever since he'd stepped a foot in the school, but things were about to change. He wanted to bring him down; he was tired of being second. "So how's your mother doing? I bet she's delighted to be rid of Lucius. Why doesn't she get rid of you as well?"

"You're going too far Blaise," Pansy interrupted. She was mad at Draco but she knew he was really close to his mother and would not handle the attack very well. Which obviously, Zabini was aware of too.

"Pansy, go shag your Gryffie boyfriend."

The girl turned a nasty shade of red and hexed the black-haired boy before turning on her heel and marching off towards the exit. Even though blood was throbbing at her temples, she could hear Draco's hasty step behind her and she knew she'd have to explain herself.

"Stop right there Pansy," he said in a low voice.

"Leave me alone. You don't want to piss me off right now, ask Zabini," she gritted through her teeth, unable to look at her friend.

"I think if someone can be pissed off, it's me."

"Don't even go there Malfoy."

"So who is it? We both know that Zabini just doesn't throw stuff in the air like that. He knows something."

"What do you care?"

"I care because you went off on me for not telling you everything and then I hear you go behind my back and have your own little secrets! Ever heard of that concept called hypocrisy, Parkinson?"

She snorted inelegantly. "Don't think everything is always about you. I had an understanding with him. He doesn't want it out either mind you!"

The blonde teenager raked his fingers through his hair and sighed. This was going nowhere. "I thought we were friends. I thought you would tell me something like that."

"You weren't honest with me either! Why didn't you tell me your father hit you? How can you even talk about friendship and confidence?" she yelled. She watched as anger, frustration and finally sadness swept through his eyes.

"It was none of your business," he replied coldly. "It was none of your business and I didn't want you to have to deal with my lunatic of a father. There, happy?"

"No, I'm sad. I thought we were closer than anything else but you couldn't tell me your secret and I couldn't tell you mine. It was too hard to tell you that I was seeing Ron Weasley. Now leave me alone; go to hell. I don't want to hear what you have to say about Ron."

She sounded defeated and he felt sorry. However, he would never admit it. "Fine, go see your boyfriend!" he spat angrily.

She turned around to face him, her eyes shooting daggers. "Saying how you feel would scorch your tongue, wouldn't it? You always have to hide behind your bastard mask. Everybody hates you Draco. Every single person in this school hates your heartless, arrogant self. And I've tried. I've put up with you and your moods, and I know that you're not so cold inside but in moments like this, you make me want to rip your head off."

"Funny, that feeling is mutual. I'm not a bloody charity case. If you don't want to be my friend, fuck off, I don't need you to be my pity buddy and to painfully put up with me as you so eloquently said it."

He watched her storm off and felt betrayed. He knew he wasn't the best example for a friend but everything she had said was taking the cake. Basically, he was her good deed and that was all.

"Trouble in Wonderland, Malfoy?" Blaise joyously shouted from the entrance of the common room. "It's okay, with a body like hers, I'm sure your mummy will quickly find a new daddy for you and you won't feel that lost anymore."

This time, Zabini saw the punch coming and punched right back. And from punch to kick to hex to hurling each other across the hall with all their housemates noisily encouraging the fight, professor and head of house Severus Snape was eventually alerted of the racket involving his precious students. He quickly sent the students to bed and then proceeded to drag his godson and Blaise to the headmaster office… Again.

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"Taylor, get out," Luke growled clutching the coffee pot with all his strength.

"I'm a paying customer. You can't throw me out with no valid excuse. I can make your reputation go down in flames!" Taylor replied indignantly.

"I do have a valid excuse: you're spoiling my oxygen supply."

"I'm just saying, this place would look charming if you would just agree to put a few flowers on the tables to celebrate spring."

"And this summer I'll arrange hay crowns around the diner and have a cow in my window display to celebrate summer like in the Little House on the Prairie?"

Lorelai gagged. "Luke, you never told me you were an Ingalls fan!"

Narcissa snickered at the recurrent diner insanity and reached for the coffee pot, scared that the beloved beverage might end up on Taylor's head instead of in her cup.

Luke turned towards the disturbance "Don't you two have anywhere else to be? Other people to traumatize perhaps?"

The blonde woman pretended to think for a second, then turned to her brunette friend. "No, we don't. Do we Lore? I think we already filled our quota with Kirk this morning."

"Yes indeed, I don't think he'll ever be able to see a Stephen King movie ever again."

Luke furrowed his brow. "Do I want to know?"

"Hmmmm, no," Lorelai laughed as Luke walked away, imagining the worst.

She then quickly downed her coffee and grabbed her coat. "I have to get back to the Inn, one of our maids resigned and now I'm short on staff and I better arrange something before one of our guests finds themselves getting out of the shower to discover there's no towel on the rack."

Narcissa's head shot up from her bowl at that. "You need a maid?"

Lorelai sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yes, it's been nearly a week and Michel has been excruciatingly annoying all yesterday just because he had to make a bed once in his life and sweated a bit, which apparently, ruined his Italian silk shirt."

"I'll do it."

"What?"

"I know, I've never done anything like this, but I'm a quick learner. I'll do it. I'll fill in," Narcissa insisted. "I need a job Lorelai. And it may not be a dream job, but it's something. I'm bored, I'm idle and I hate it. Please please please, we can bully Michel together," she made her puppy eyes and smiled evilly.

Lorelai laughed at the thought. Narcissa hadn't ceased to amaze her in the fortnight that she had spent with her. The woman was crazy, funny, smart, but there was something about her that the Gilmores, after evenings and evenings of talk about their new neighbour, could not figure out.

"Okay, I think you'll be great. It's nothing complicated. If I could learn it, surely, you can as well. And it'll be fun to see Michel's face when he hears I gave you the job." She smiled sadistically, already rehearsing the scene in her head.

Narcissa felt curiously excited. She had a job. So, alright, she was a maid. She was basically doing the same job that she had ordered her house elves to do ever since she could speak. She had never paid them any attention. They were just there. Invisible. And somehow, it made her happy to think that she was going to be invisible just like them.

She started work immediately. She knew she had a lot to learn but she could manage; never in her life had she been more motivated to do anything. She was simply flying all afternoon and her enthusiasm was communicative so everybody was in a good mood. Except Michel of course, but then again, it was very rare for him to be chirpy.

Narcissa had never felt more alive than since she had left Lucius but right now, with her house starting to look like something, her new friends, her new job and people simply liking her, she was ecstatic. And even more so when she got home that night to see Bill Weasley sitting on her porch, idly playing with a straw of grass. She approached him while chatting to Lorelai and Rory.

"Weasley, what are you doing on my porch!"

"Why Cissa, aren't you happy to see me?" he pouted.

"Depends. Are you going to cook dinner?"

"Hmm. Maybe. If you keep the blonde woman from next door away from me," he replied with a frown.

Rory and Lorelai snickered. "But Babette is a whole part of the Stars Hollow experience, person to whom we still not have been introduced," Lorelai interrupted looking pointedly at Narcissa.

"Right. Lorelai, Rory, this is my old school friend Bill. Bill, this is Lorelai, my friend, neighbour and boss, and her daughter Rory."

"Boss?" he laughed. "You. Have. A. Job?"

"Oh, do you have to be so cynical?"

"I'm sorry, I'm just used to the Malfoy manor mistress whose only job was ordering staff around."

"If you're going to be a jerk, you might as well get off my porch you great prat!"

"Come on Cissa, I'm a loveable jerk," he joked.

"Only the days you're mute, deaf and blind," she replied without missing a beat.

He held a hand to his chest in a pained expression and the girls burst out laughing.

Dinner had been wonderful. Narcissa had invited the Gilmores to stay and Bill had once again amazed them all with one of his mother's secret recipes. Of course, he had added his dash of magic in it but Rory and Lorelai had been busy coddling the brand new coffee maker and hadn't seen a thing. Then they had played Pictionnary and Rory had finally called it a night when she remembered the amount of homework awaiting her. Now the house was quiet and Narcissa had become thoughtful.

Bill eyed her mirthfully. "I'm impressed Cissa. I didn't think you could make it. And look at you. You have everything you should have had years ago."

"I'm happy. I should have done all this years ago. I know, I wasn't ready. But I threw away fifteen years of my life being miserable." She sighed and fixed her eyes on the blazing fire that they had lit earlier.

"You shouldn't have regrets."

"I know Bill, you don't believe in regrets. You think every experience is worth what it's worth and teaches us how to grow from there."

"Yep, exactly. Would you be enjoying all this so much if those miserable fifteen years hadn't existed? Would you even be here at all?"

"Bite me Billy," she cut. She knew he was right and it frustrated her.

"Don't call me that!" he protested vehemently while she laughed at him.

She curled up against him on the couch. "I hope Draco's okay."

"Bah, he'll be fine," Bill interjected. Narcissa looked at him in surprise; he didn't know much about her son. "Well, he takes after you," Bill finished and winked at her.

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Calm had finally settled over Hogwarts. The Slytherin fight had been sorted, at least till morning, the Gryffindor usual partying had been shut down by their head of house and even Filch and Mrs Norris had gone to bed. That's how Pansy preferred the castle. Silent like a tomb and deserted, like it was abandoned. She rested her forehead against the cold window of the Room of Requirements and hid her feet deeper under her blanket.

She heard Ron shift in his sleep but he was a heavy sleeper and she had been fairly silent. She wasn't sure if she felt like talking right now. Her brain was jammed with the events from the evening and she needed to step back and gain a new perspective before she could seriously analyze them.

"Pansy, you're going to freeze over there," Ron mumbled, his voice thick with sleep.

She walked back to the bed and curled up next to him. After nearly five months, she still had trouble believing that he, Ronald Weasley, Gryffindor and Harry Potter's right hand man, was her boyfriend. She allowed her body to relax as warmth spread through her muscles. She hadn't realised how cold the window sill actually was.

"Ugh, you're an icicle!" Ron cried, suddenly very awake due to her very cold body pressing against him. She chuckled but he felt something was off with her.

"Look, I know we made it a standing rule from the beginning that we wouldn't talk about Malfoy, but something is bothering you, I know it's about him and I hate seeing you bothered like that," he blurted out quickly, blushing ever so slightly.

She, of course, noticed the blush. "Aw Ron, I think it's cute that you worry about me," she teased.

"Do not call me cute," he groaned.

She smiled at him and kissed his (cute) freckled nose. "I'm fine, really."

"Sure you are; and I'm Snape's hidden child."

Pansy sighed and hid her face in his dark blue shirt. "It's just, we had another fight tonight."

"He's a jerk," Ron quipped.

"Ron," Pansy replied sternly. "He's not a jerk. He's… difficult."

"Yeah, yeah. What happened?"

"He knows about us and he thinks I'm a hypocrite for being mad at him for things he kept from me. I kept you from him," she frowned, aware that Draco was right.

"You two have been at each other's throats for days now. Don't you think you could try talking to him? Really talk, not just throw stuff at each other?"

Pansy laughed bitterly. "You're thinking about you and Hermione. A little talk and everything is fine. Draco doesn't talk. Draco clams up and freezes you out and refuses to feel anything and on top of it, he's stubborn enough to never ever forgive you."

"Why do you bother with him?" Ron frowned.

"Why do you bother with Harry?" she shot back, knowing that the boy-who-lived could drive you up the wall as easily as her blonde friend.

Ron shrugged. "I don't know. I guess you and I both like a challenge; or masochism. I still think you should try talking to him. At least you'll know you've tried and he can mull it over for the next ten years and show up at your wedding," he ended mockingly, which never failed to make her laugh.

"Now you're just implying he's slow!"

"Uh uh."

She elbowed him in the stomach but laughed nonetheless and decided to put her best friend aside for now. After all, she was in a secret room, in the middle of the night, with a handsome looking boy who could hardly keep his hands off her. Life wasn't THAT bad.


	5. Chapter 5

Here's a new chapter! You know the drill of author notes, I'm not gonna repeat myself, see previous chapters. And enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 5:

Lorelai woke up extremely chirpy the next morning. Everything felt amazing. Until she remembered it was Friday, which meant Friday night dinner, which meant hell. Still, it was a pretty day. It was sunny, warm, spring was blooming and she and Narcissa had big plans for today.

She quickly bounced downstairs to find Rory reading the newspaper and having a vat of coffee, ready to go to Chilton. Lorelai pranced some more around the room and twirled in the direction of the coffee maker.

"Today, ladies and gentlemen, today, the great artist in front of you is going to let her imagination and skill loose again. Today, you will be greeted with an amazing, exceptional, outstanding performance by Lorelai Victoria Gilmore," she declared.

"Mom, you're just going to paint rooms. You're not the next Renoir," Rory sighed.

Lorelai gave her a pointed look. "Well, aren't you Miss Sunshine this morning."

Rory rolled her eyes and gestured towards her uniform, not even bothering to form a sentence.

"Ah, Chilton, the wonderful Chilton. I thought you liked it there? Besides you only have a half day today."

"I like the classes. I don't particularly enjoy being the dartboard to Paris' darts. I've been there more than six months and she still hates me with a passion," Rory groaned.

"Yes but that's because of-" Lorelai was cut off quickly.

"Shut up."

"But-"

"Forbidden topic! The mere name shall not be mentioned! No reference shall be used!

"I was gonna say your superior intelligence!" Lorelai countered. "I wasn't gonna talk about Bible Boy! Oops," she smiled with false sweetness.

"What's Bible Boy?" another voice asked from the door. Rory's head thumped on the table as she mumbled "The name of a new torture device."

Lorelai tsked and turned her laughing eyes towards Narcissa. "It's a good story, I'll tell you while I train to become Chagall and you Rembrandt."

The blonde woman narrowed her eyes. "Why do you get to be Chagall?"

"Because he painted floating trains," she replied as if that explained anything.

Rory rolled her eyes and departed for school as the two women continued their debate over coffee.

One or two hours later, after all the coffee in the Gilmore house had vanished, they decided to move next door where there was coffee, and to actually start their big project.

"So, what kind of colours did you choose?" Lorelai asked eying the pots adoringly.

"Old pink for my room, a pastel green for the living room and foyer, a soft shade of blue for the kitchen, terracotta for the dining room, Draco's room is undecided, and a forest green for the attic," Narcissa numbered using her fingers.

"You're painting the attic?"

"Yeah, I want the whole house to be pretty, even where I put the not pretty things that I don't want anymore," Narcissa joked, not about to admit to Lorelai that the spacious space under the roof would be filled with quite unusual books and objects and bubbling cauldrons.

"Amen sister. Where should we start? Your room perhaps."

Narcissa heartedly agreed and they set to work… or something resembling it.

* * *

Snape watched Albus out of the corner of his eye and waited. The headmaster had decided to send the boys to bed the previous night so the problem was being dealt with now, on this freezing, cloudy Friday morning which Snape usually enjoyed as he didn't have to teach.

Of course, today had to be spoiled. When he had had an awful week dealing with his house, here he was, having to once again step in. Sometimes he wondered why on earth he had accepted to be head of house. He had to have a death wish or something.

Yes, that had to be it. Forget that Snape was the only Slytherin teacher back when he had been asked and that Dumbledore always managed to get what he wanted from people. Severus rolled his eyes and focused on the two teenagers sitting in front of Albus' desk.

Draco's face was vacant of expression. He looked bored but that's all his body language let know. Blaise, on the other hand, was fidgety and nervous. Snape nearly smirked at that. Not that he was on his godson's side but Blaise had a tendency to play bigger than he could handle and obviously, a trip to the headmaster's office is something the black haired boy hadn't counted on and didn't like one bit.

"I'm still waiting for an explanation," Albus said in his very soft voice, the one that sent creeps down your spine and usually made you tell everything.

"It was just a small argument, Sir," Blaise stuttered, very uncomfortable in Dumbledore's office where he had never been before.

"I know it was an argument, Mr. Zabini. However, I would like to know why there was one in the first place. Mr Malfoy?"

Draco rolled his eyes and slouched further in his chair. "He insulted my mother and I; I punched him."

"I didn't insult anyone!"

"Really? Implying that my mother is a whore wasn't insulting?" Draco snarled.

"I didn't-"

"Save it Zabini."

"Calm down, the both of you. Mr Zabini, did you or did you not say something that could have been interpreted that way?"

Baise squirmed under the boring gaze of the headmaster. "Well, sort of."

"I see," the old professor sighed, looking very tired and annoyed. "I am very disappointed in you. You've been a good student ever since you start Hogwarts. Passable grades, hardly any detention, and certainly no trip to my office under such circumstances. Nevertheless, in the past week, you've gone out of your way to bring your classmate into fights. As I can't quite fathom the reason, you will write me an essay as to why. Three rolls of parchement to be on my desk by the end of the weekend. And you will, of course, serve detention, starting tonight with Hagrid. I believe there's a problem with an infestation of Chizpurfles in the north tower; they keep eating Trelawney's crystal balls. Drives her crazy," he ended with what could be considered a slight smile. "You may go."

Blaise didn't wait for anymore instructions and practically flew from the office, not even hovering behind the door to hear about the fate that would befall Draco.

The headmaster finally turned to the blonde boy. "Mr Malfoy, I warned you, not even a week ago."

"I'm aware, Sir." The reply was cold and unfazed.

"I'm sorry we have come this far. I'm going to have to discuss with the staff what to do with you. In the meanwhile, you will live with the headboy and headgirl. They share a dormitory. You of course understand why you're not going back to your own house."

Draco's face didn't change but Severus noticed he was clenching his fists. "You really think I'm going to move in with two lunatics?"

"Draco, go pack your stuff now. This is not open to discussion," Snape gritted through his clenched teeth. He knew that he had power over the boy and it was about time he used it. He sighed as Draco stormed down the stairs and slumped in an armchair. If he only could have had classes to give that morning.

* * *

Draco was glad to find empty hallways and an empty common room. But after all, everyone was in class. He smiled: it made everything much easier.

It didn't take him long to throw everything he owned in his trunk and his book bag, shrinking the whole and stuffing it into his pocket so that he would not have to lug it around. He stepped out of the common room again without looking back and headed for the statue of the witch that hid the passage to Honeydukes.

His first stop would be Gringotts: he would need American money.

Then after a quick stop at the bookstore (he could rarely resist), he set off for the portkey station, ignoring the curious glances the crowd was throwing him. Thankfully, none of the articles had contained a picture of him and people were just wondering if he was the Malfoy kid or not.

Once in the waiting room, he pulled out one of his mother's letters. He didn't really know where Stars Hollow was and he doubted that the tiny loony bin was on any map at all. He perused the letter and found what he wanted: Hartford, Connecticut. Closest city. He would manage from there… or so he hoped.

Not that he would ever admit it, but he was terrified. He didn't know where he was going, nor how he was getting there and even less what he would find once there. He briefly wondered if Hogwart's staff had already realized he was gone. He doubted it: they probably thought he had hidden in a corner to sulk.

The queue eventually advanced and he soon found himself in front of a till.

"Where you goin' sweets?" asked the tarty cashier.

He frowned, repulsed. "Hartford, Connecticut."

"Ah, Oz Avenue it is then darling," she sang cheerfully, ignoring his murderous glare as he handed her the fee.

He grabbed his ticket and crossed the room to sit as far as possible from the cashier, not noticing the man sitting across him immediately. The 35 year old on the other hand, recognized him instantly but didn't dare say anything: he knew the kid would have his head if he pronounced the fated Malfoy name.

Draco eventually saw him. His education couldn't really let him ignore the man so he sighed and spoke up. "Morning professor Lupin."

Remus smiled. "Good morning Draco, are you lost?"

The teenager raised his eyebrows. "Lost?"

"Well, you're supposed to be in Hogwarts right now."

"Well, I'm not," the boy mimicked insolently.

"Well, should I drag you back there then?"

"Well, how about you go wherever you're going, and I do the same and we stop using the word 'well' once and for all."

"Very well," Remus replied, stressing the last word, amused with the boy. Truth was, that kid was insufferable, and most people were offended at his insolence and cynicism, but Remus Lupin was not most people.

The metallic voice announcing portkey transfers called for Hartford passengers and Draco got up, noticing that his former teacher was doing the same. Lupin laughed, which annoyed him to no end.

"Well, it looks like we're going the same way young man."

Draco glowered but didn't reply. It would be over in less than two or three seconds so he didn't really care if the werewolf was going to Hartford. He had other things more important to think about. Nevertheless, he was careful to lose him in the crowd before heading for information. He needed to find that stupid little town.

Information gave him a bus ticket, a bus line to take and how to get to said bus. And now, here he was, standing in front of a muggle bus. A muggle bus. Malfoys don't take muggle busses.

However, he didn't have a choice. Furthermore, Malfoys did or did not do a lot of things and that hadn't turned out so swell for his father. And on top of it all, he was not a baby, nor a sheltered little prick and he would step into the damn thing and stop being so pathetic.

He mentally smacked himself and smiled back at the driver, forgetting that Malfoys don't smile. The bus finally shook itself awake and started to move. It was much more peaceful than the Knight Bus, Draco noticed and he was actually feeling good about that.

It was noon, even though his watch indicated five in the afternoon. He quickly set it right and wondered how it was possible it was already so late in England. He had left mid morning. Ah, now he remembered: he had bought two new potions books. He grinned and his gaze shifted outside the window.

The bus stopped every five minutes and it was annoying, but Draco wasn't sure he cared. He was away from boring glances. No one here knew him, he was just a regular person on a bus and nobody gave a damn about his family, nobody talked to him.

The bus stopped in front of a very busy place and Draco awoke from his daze and looked around. It was a school.

"Gilmore, stop right there!" a sharp voice caught his attention. A blonde girl was stalking towards the bus in which a brunette girl was climbing.

"What Paris?"

"We're not over, let me tell you," the girl spat out hatefully. "You're on top of my hate list, Rory Gilmore. Up there with my Rabbi, I hope you get along with him."

"Yeah, I have insightful conversations about you with him," Rory quipped.

The bus driver bit back a grin and ordered her to get on or get out. She climbed the rest of the stairs and plopped down on a seat, mockingly waving goodbye to the fuming Paris girl. Soon she was absorbed in a book and didn't notice anything pass by, nor did she notice the blonde boy staring at her.

Draco was sure it was the Rory Gilmore his mother had mentioned in a letter. Lorelai's daughter. How many Rory Gilmore could there be in Hartford and climbing in a bus to Stars Hollow? He hoped not many, or he was about to splendidly humiliate himself.

He slid in the seat in front of her and turned around to look at her. She hadn't noticed anything.

"Hello."

She jumped a foot high before catching her breath and looking at him. "You never do that to someone who reads!"

He smirked "I know, I've told that to my best friend a million times but she keeps doing it so I thought it had be a good way to have your attention."

Now Rory was eyeing him with interest. Blonde hair and blue eyes with a definite British accent sounded way too déjà-vu. "I thought you were supposed to be in Scotland," she shyly said, not sure it was actually him.

His smirk widened at her embarrassment. "Ah, so you are the Rory my mother wrote about."

She nodded "Whatever horrible thing she said is a complete lie."

"I'll see."

"Wait, does your mom know you're here?" Now she was surprised. Narcissa would have said something, she would have been anticipating it, not painting herself and Lorelai in various hues.

"The look on your face tells me you already have your answer. And whatever horrible thing my mother said about me is completely true."

"Ah, so you do like cross-dressing!" she exclaimed triumphally.

He raised his eyebrows but he knew she was joking and it was refreshing to have someone actually joke and not stone him. "Yeah, I always knew my feminine side was dominant."

"Proves you're smart. Males are stupid," she tucked her hair behind her ear and smirked.

"I'm flattered."

"Whatever feels right to you."

Talking with Rory made the trip come to a very short and abrupt end. The bus pulled in front of Stars Hollow High and made all his doubts come back. Was he right to have left Hogwarts? What would his mother say anyway? He frowned and followed Rory down the street. She was still casually chatting with him.

"So you like coffee?" He nodded and she clapped happily "Let's go to Luke's then! Oh, unless you want to go home immediately." Her face fell slightly at the thought that she had to get him there and would have to forfeit the coffee.

"No, let's get coffee. I haven't had any since this morning and I'm bordering withdrawal."

"Well, let's fix this then."

* * *

"Luke, we painted all morning, we need sustenance!"

"I'll give you a cheeseburger, that's actual sustenance."

"Luke!"

"Narcissa!"

Lorelai laughed, it was too funny to see that Narcissa was her young padawan in the art of Annoying Luke Till His Ears Popped and Smoked.

"I'm busy, I don't have time to deal with you two," Luke grumbled. Except that the diner was empty, apart from the two teenagers standing next to the door, watching the scene with interest.

"Give us coffee and we'll leave!" Lorelai promised.

"At least, give us coffee, we don't annoy you!" Rory chided in.

"And neither of us are going to get on our knees and grab your leg," Draco added, looking at his mother who was sitting on Luke's foot.

Narcissa's head shot up at the sound of his voice and her face broke into a smile. "What, it works!" she exclaimed, knowing he was definitely not one for tearful reunions.

"Obviously," her son drawled pointing at her empty cup.

"You interrupted the process at a crucial moment; he was about to break."

Draco gave her a blank stare and plopped on a seat, ignoring the fact that Lorelai was looking at him. Narcissa finally let go of Luke's leg and sat down next to her offspring, knowing very well that he shouldn't be there. Luke had stopped eyeing Rory's 'friend' suspiciously and gave everyone coffee, to the delight of Lorelai who squealed and cooed happily to her cup till Rory threatened to take it away.

"Are you going to tell me what on earth you're doing here or do I have to call Dumbledore?"

Draco looked at her with his best Bambi eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said sweetly.

"You know very well. You're supposed to be in school, not to show up here," she said coldly. She was happy he was there, but she was worried something was wrong at school. She watched him squirm: he was well aware that she was not joking about it.

"People kept getting me into trouble, I got fed up, I left," he summarized and gulped down his coffee. "This is really good."

"What kind of trouble?" Narcissa inquired, searching his face for indications and of course, finding none but pure contentment for the coffee.

"Oh, a few words, a few brawls and the headmaster was on my back. I couldn't handle it anymore," he shrugged, not wanting to let her know just how much the whole matter was affecting him.

The blonde woman sighed, aware what "it" meant. She should have known better than leave Draco behind with all that mess erupting around them. "Alright, I'm gonna call Albus. You stay here if you want." Draco nodded, knowing that one cup was not going to fix his caffeine low.

Lorelai looked at her friend with concern. "I'm coming with you Cissa. Rory and Draco can join us later. And isn't it great, now we have help to finish painting!" she giggled and grabbed her friend's arm.

* * *

Narcissa inwardly sighed. Lorelai being there, she couldn't contact the headmaster through the fireplace. She would have to pretend to call him and get the imaginary secretary to tell her he wasn't available right now and try later.

"You look troubled," Lorelai broke the silence.

"It's nothing. I guess I'm just tired."

"Yeah, the exhaustion of a day doing nothing," Lorelai cut sarcastically.

"Draco's not supposed to be here. He cut school and ran away." Narcissa replied tiredly. "I should never have left him behind. How could I have been so selfish and so naïve? How could have I thought he would be fine? I'm a horrible mother!" she cried out as she slumped on her porch stairs.

Lorelai joined her. "Okay, enough. What's up with you? What's wrong? And what happened in England? And don't say nothing."

"I don't want to talk about it," Narcissa groaned, unhappy that the life she had left behind was following her everywhere.

"I do. I'm your friend; you can talk to me. You're bubbly and happy but at the same time, you seem lonely and weighed down and I can't seem to understand why. I'll give you a cookie if you talk to me," Lorelai nudged her softly.

"Chocolate chip?"

"Well, I'm sure I can arrange that."

Narcissa sighed and braced herself. Maybe talking to a friend would help her see things with more perspective? It had made her feel better to tell Bill the whole story and he had done everything he could to support her and encourage her. Lorelai was as good a friend as Bill.

She leaned back and closed her eyes, letting the sun bathe her somewhat painted face. "I was forced into marriage as soon as I graduated from school. My parents had arranged it with another rich family. I hated their son and everything he stood for. Thankfully, he wasn't asking a lot from me: he just wanted me to be a perfect trophee wife and to produce an heir. After Draco was born, he completely lost interest in me."

Lorelai whistled. "I knew you were a product of the screwed up high society."

Narcissa chuckled and continued. "I didn't care that Lucius left me alone. I was happy with that actually. I had my kid and it was all that mattered. But when Draco was four, Lucius decided it was time to start "educating" his heir… to be an improved copy of himself."

"Lucius said I was too soft and he decided to counter that. He was strict, had no flexibility whatsoever. I stood against him all the time." Now she was growing incomfortable. She was babbling to delay the dreadful revelations but she knew she was only buying herself time.

"What happened then?" Lorelai asked softly, not wanting her friend to freeze and back out of talking.

"He hit me." There, done. "Once, then twice, then regularly. Everytime I would disagree with him or displease him, he wouldn't suavely talk me out of my opinion anymore, he would just plainly treat me like a dog. Way later, I discovered he was violent with Draco too. I wasn't sure what to do and I thought I wouldn't be able to do anything anyway. Draco was starting boarding school the next year anyway, so he would be fine. Again, I was mistaken."

"Last year I let it slip to one of my friends whose father works for the ministry. He encouraged me to go to justice and to get myself and my son out of this hell. I hesitated for weeks. Finally, I drank a whole bottle of whiskey to give me strength and dragged my husband to court. Then I got a divorce, and I left."

The two friends sat in silence for a while. Lorelai absorbing the information and Narcissa meditating on the past. She finally broke the silence. "I let 16 years of my life go to waste, I let him screw up my kid and then, I left Draco alone behind to pick up the pieces of his life while I was having fun here. How can he not hate me? I'm despicable."

"Look, I could tell you that it's not true but you wouldn't believe, so how about we paint that living room of yours and you talk to your kiddo tonight? He wouldn't have come here if he hated you."

"Okay. But this time, I want to be Chagall."

* * *

Remus Lupin changed discs and sat back on his weary little couch. He tried to let the jazz sweep him away, but his mind stubbornly refused to cooperate. He was annoyed at himself for letting that throw him off balance.

So what if he had met Draco at the portkey station?

Truth was, he had been surprised when the teenager had gotten up at the Hartford announcement. What was he doing, going there? Severus had said that Narcissa had changed countries but United-States? And Connecticut?

Remus had never been one to believe in signs and destiny and that kind of silly things Trelawney was so fond of. He refused to think that his fate was mapped out from the beginning.

But that was one hell of a coincidence, and he was confused about it.

The boy had disappeared in the crowd. Then, Remus had spotted him buying a bus ticket. He nearly thought he was having a hallucination: Draco Malfoy, spawn extraordinary of Death Eater number One, was going to actually put a foot in a muggle bus?

The answer had been yes. Draco had climbed the stairs of the bus, smiled at the driver and had his ticket punched before taking a seat, all of this like a perfect little muggle teenager.

It couldn't be possible, could it? But if it was indeed the case, what did that imply? What would he do? He had already been stupid enough to take that job at Hogwarts. He had lasted one year but it had been painful, so painful. He wasn't sure he would have kept it till the end of the year if it hadn't been for the Sirius thing and Harry.

He had fled England, left Hogwarts behind under the pretence that parents wouldn't want a werewolf teaching their kids. It had broken his heart to lie to Harry, but he knew he couldn't stay in that school.

Oz Avenue had welcomed him warmly. People were a lot more open-minded about werewolves over here than in the UK. He had found a great job, he had a cosy little flat upstairs from the shop, his colleagues had become his friends and he loved his life as it was.

And now, that. Oh Merlin.

If the remaining Malfoys were around, it would only be a matter of time… and he wasn't sure he was anywhere near ready to face this.


End file.
